Cowboys, Breakfast Club and the arrival of Spring.

As crazy as it sounds, the end of my exchange at Purdue University is creeping ever closer. There are now less than three weeks to go in the semester, and on May 7 I fly out to New York for my month of travelling. It feels very surreal, and as such there has been an effort to try and fit as much as possible in lately. Unfortunately, there is still this little thing called school so I don't have much time to write a long entry, but for those who are interested here is a brief look at my world for the last few weeks.

Tippecanoe Battlefield Monument: the venue of a battle between the local Indian people and the British in the 19th Century. Was an exciting trip for me!

 

Drinking at Jake's. One of my regular haunts, the beer is cheap and the people are fun.

It's a heart attack in a meal. On the way to Nashville we drove through Kentucky, it was only fitting we had KFC. Fascinating watching three Scandanavian girls have their first KFC experience.

Nashville: Country music at it's finest. Every bar had live music and it was so much fun.

Not the best picture, but the crowd was massive and the band was great. They could play anything.

Outside Tootsies, a little grungier and so fun. Could have stayed there for hours.

Fort Nashborough in Nashville. A set-up showing the original settler homes, was actually really well done.

Pretty sure this was the Tennessee State House. Went on a massive walk to find it, though more fascinating was probably the people dancing in the water fountain outside or the creepy old dude sitting with no pants on. Okay, that last one was just disturbing.

And just for Mom.... Yeah, that's me driving a car on the wrong side of the road! I was the only 25-year-old in the car who could drive, so I managed to get us from Indiana to Tennessee and back safely. Quite proud of that effort I must say.

To the undoubted dismay of the others I took us on a slight detour on the way home so we could check out where Abraham Lincoln was born. Unfortunately we were there too late so it was closed - but I was still excited to get this close!

My baby. The car I drove for more than 800 miles across America.

My true American love.

Breakfast Club. A mad Purdue tradition which involved us lining up at 5.30am, dressed in all sorts of costumes, to start drinking at the campus bars when they opened at 7am. We were all a little excited about the arrival of Purdue Pete. It cannot really be explained if you're not there.

This really sums up Breakfast Club. Note it would have been no later than 8am when this picture was taken, but the drinking started at 5am. My liver may never recover from last week. It might also explain why my face appears to be such an odd colour...

 

Last week was also Grand Prix week, and Spring arrived for a little while. It's fun watching the season change and shedding the winter clothes. Was funny reading a story about the cold snap which had hit NZ last week, a little snow and 0 degrees does not make a cold snap anymore! Alas, winter often reappears here so I'm excited about heading south in a few weeks. At the same time I'm dreading leaving this wonderful little world and especially about saying goodbye to my friends. So the next three weeks will undoubtedly be busy but hopefully they will be a lot of fun. I will try and write again before I finish, and if I have time I will update this while I'm travelling in May.

I hope everyone is safe and well.